AIBU to not follow new guidelines?

[LittleSugaPlum]

Im pregnant with first baby and im almost 33 weeks.
I plan to bottle feed and have brought all the equipment already.

When i was a nursery nurse, around 5 years ago, it was common to "bulk make bottles" and store them in the fridge for upto 24hours.

When i mentioned to my midwife that i was bottlefeeding, she mentioned that the new guidelines were to make up a feed when needed and its not recommended to "bulk make feeds"

Have people honestly stopped doing this? Do people actually only make one feed at a time?

Im seriously considering bulk making, if it was fine for years, whats the difference now?

AIBU to not follow the new guidelines?

We make up batches of Formula - I believe the WHO recomendation for making it up as needed is partly because many places in the world don't have reliable refrigeration.

on the BF/FF debate: our LO had to have formula in the first week but we managed to teach her to BF after that, which continued until about 4 mo. This might make it possible for you to BF at home but not in public.

I'm always interested to read about other mum's reasons behind their choices so thankyou for sharing littlesugaplum but I do echo the sentiments of others who feel it's a shame that you have made decisions and judgements based on the skewed representative of examples on MN - there is naturally going to be more negative than positives here. It's a wonder any MNters have more babies!

My 3 all self weaned quickly and easily btw, and there are plenty of mums who feel the same way you do about feeding in public, there's nothing wrong with that. My babies did see me as a milk supply which was frustrating at times, but I find it funny how my toddler cuddles into me now in a similar way to when he wanted a feed but with apparently no memory of bf.

god this place takes the biscuit and some of you do the breast feeding cause no favours in your comments.

No one would say to a mum to be who said she was going to bf had she considered ff instead or given her a grilling over her choice.

The op didn't ask for your views on bf over ff so please dont preach to her. If she is old enough to have a baby then she sure is old enought to make her own mind up how to feed it.

I bulk made mine also, my health visitor for DS2 said it is generally not recommended any more but agreed it seems silly not too especially if your getting up several times in the night and your half asleep. She advised not storing them for more than 12 hours and to keep them in the main part of the fridge not the door - both my son's survived without any issues and I would do it again.

YABU although your midwife has misinterpreted the guidelines.

As everyone has said it is important that if you are using powdered formula milk that it is made up in water over 70 degrees centigrade in order to kill the bacteria primarily cronobacter sakazakii but also other bacteria like salmonella.
Water of 70 degrees centigrade is best achieved by boiling one litre of water and leaving it to cool for no more than half an hour.
making up each bottle at a time is the safest way but most people use the second safest way and make up two or three bottles in water over 70 degrees rapid cool and put in the back of the fridge.

Sure the risk of a cronobacter infection is low, (apparently something like 3% of formula is contaminated) but 40-80% of babies who contract it die and many of the rest have long term developmental delay. We aren't talking about a stomach upset, the most recent deaths to hit the news were in the USA last Christmas.

Up to you the level of risk you are prepared to take with your baby and the risk is higher the younger your baby is but I can't imagine why anyone would take the risk of making formula up in cooled boiled water when you could make two or three up 'correctly' rapidly cool and store.

I made up 6 bottles at a time with freshly boiled water, cooled them in a sink full of cold water, stored them at the back of the fridge, and reheated in a jug of warm water as needed. DC's are 11 and 9 now. Never had any problems doing this, and made more sense than storing just boiled water and adding powder as we went in terms of killing bacteria in the powder. Or did to me, any way.

Thanks to everyone who has explained how they did their bottles.

When i bought my electric steriliser (tommee tippee) it came with afew little accessories like bottle brush, afew spare bottles etc.

It also came with 6 little containers for putting powder in and then putting the container in boiled water in the bottle and then your suppose to add the powder when needed. Aparently its so you get a fresh feed everytime.

Are these containers a waste of time when the water has to be a certain temp to kill bacteria anyway? So i may as well make them up from scratch rather than use these, otherwise i ll have to reheat the boiled water to a high temp to kill the bacteria in the formula, and then cool the water down again to drinkable temp! Which defeats the object of boiling the water in the first place and putting the containers with formula in, in the bottles?

Mothers who have or are BF are entitled to defend misconceptions about BF aren't they? We don't all have the soul destroying experience some people interpret BF to be.
littlesugaplum has obviously made an informed choice but there are many others reading, who only read or remember the 'horror' stories which then puts them off. The op said part of her decision was based on what she had read about BF on MN, which isn't a fair representation of what BF is really like.

don't forget as well, to get bottles and teats that are the right size.

I was amazed when my sister gave me her sterilizing kit, that the teats have different sized holes for different ages, and that that you start off with rather small bottles, progressing to larger ones as they get older.
you'll need to look into that - there's no point having the "wrong" size bottle because the temptation, i suppose, would be to put more in each bottle, and you can't use one bottle for more than one feed.
once the feed is over, you have to dump what's left.

and if you use the wrong size teat, you could end up distressing the baby. (too fast or too slow flow depending on which wrong teat you have)

the little containers - useful to fill them up in the daytime when you're not knackered so that you don't have to piss about measuring the right amount when you make the bottles :)

"Mothers who have or are BF are entitled to defend misconceptions about BF aren't they"

The OP only gave her reasons when asked why she wasn't BFing. She really shouldnt have been asked. By all means defend misconceptions, but I doubt this is done effectively by 'feeling sad' for the OP. I'm quite sure she doesn't need any pity.

Guidelines change because research finds new stuff. They used to recommend smoking for people with lung problems! I hate it when people use anecdotal evidence.

The risk is low but real. I am bottle feeding. For night feeds I bulk make 4 bottles. For day time and out and about I have a flask of hot water and measured cool water in bottles (3oz). I then pour cool water into lid of flask, add 1oz of hot water to bottle and mix 4 scoops in. Then add cool water which makes it right temp.

I had the Tommee Tipee set with the little pots and I thought it was great.

I would be able to boil the water for the bottles, and get them in the back of the fridge, and measure out the right amount of powder when I was more 'awake' so during the night, I could shufffle about like a zombie without needing to count how many scoops

Well said tether - the OP asked about bottle-making.......it didn't take long for the BFers to jump in did it?

Fuck - but the guideline are now to make the formula with boiled water that is still 70degrees.
you can store a completely made bottle, but not to make up a bottle with cold water.

I never said I feel sad for her. I said it's a shame she has made a decision based on the skewed representation of BF on MN. The BFers jumped in to defend certain misconceptions.

The BFers always jump in naturalbaby. Let is go and respect her decision.

Nickel Ooops, I didn't know that (despite reading the thread stupid nightshifts)

Nevermind, not planning on doing it again :o

You didn't say you felt sad for her naturalbaby, but other posters did.

There is an easy way to make bottles fresh and quickly.

Boil a kettle of water and cool it. Store at the back of the fridge in a sealed bottle.

Make up the feed using (say) a third of the required water at 70 degrees, then when mixed, top up with the chilled water to the required level, which will cool the temperature of the feed.

Obviously, you need to then check the feed is cool enough, and if not, run the bottle under the cold tap as normal.

The above method only takes a minute or two, probably faster than warming a premade bottle.

I always make up bottles in advance, freshly boiled water and then flash cool & store in fridge.

I don't know anyone that makes up bottles one at a time. We used ready made formula at first, while we got into the swing of things, but it works out expensive (and ds is now on comfort formula which only comes in powdered form).

How to feed baby is a personal decision. OP wants to formula feed, she shouldn't have to defend her choices. That's not what she was asking for advice on.

You have to be careful with that method, Lougle- you should measure out the correct amount of water before adding the powder.

If you mix say 7 scoops of powder into 3oz of hot water and then top up to 7oz, the feed will be too thick. 7 scoops of powder added to 7oz water will produce a feed closer to 8 oz IYSWIM.

get a sugar thermometer.
put it in the kettles (away from the element) before you boil.
get the powder ready.
once the kettle has boiled, take off the lid (after the steam has settled please!!) and wait until the water has gone down to 75. (70 is really the minimum)
make up the bottles according to the instructions.
put all the lids on.
cool quickly (i think putting in a bath of cold water is best) and then put at the back of the fridge.
job done.

I'm going to be totally up front here. I don't respect your right to bottle feed without even attempting breastfeeding. I think your 'reasons' are all about you and as breastfeeding is known to be the better option for your child then you should at least try that. I also think that if you are going to take the riskier route of bottlefeeding then you should at least do it according to safety guidelines and not by what's easiest for you.
I don't anybody should feel bad for as much as 1/2 a second if they've tried to breastfeed and it's not worked out but I think not trying is pretty rubbish tbh.

But it's sod all to do with you is it Northern

And why would op take a blind bit of notice of someone who's obviously out to make someone feel guilty?